Morrison Hershfield
We only need to reduce our license pool by one license in each country to realize enough of a cost benefit to justify the software.
This Canadian company was pioneered over 70 years ago, offering civil, structural and mechanical engineering services.
Over the years their reputation and quality of service has led to them expanding across Canada and the United States, with a workforce of 1000 and 20 branches across North America. They have also opened a branch in India in Andhra Pradesh’s capital, Visakhapatnam, one of India’s designated Smart Cities.
Morrison Hershfield Project
OpenLM has helped us manage costs during a difficult transition period in the industry
Finding a Solution for the License Challenge
Nearly four years ago, Morrison Hershfield recognized that they needed to manage the costs on their engineering software licenses. They were faced with the common situation that they had users complaining that licenses were unavailable for specific products, while at the same time they had an oversupply of other licenses.
With the key objectives of reducing costs while simultaneously eliminating license denials, they started investigating the market. The SaaS service offered by OpenLM appealed as a solution for managing licenses for their 500 users. The decision was made and the transition was swift, just a few hours according to Robert Welsford, IT Manager.
Saving on Costs, Gaining Control
Benefits were derived over a range of pain-points.
Under-utilization of licenses
The move to subscriptions
Unexpected benefits
Managing requirements for more licenses
Improved availability
Return on Investment (ROI) is just One License Away
The service pays for itself very easily. John Dutz stated that they only need to reduce the license pool in each country by one license per year to cost-justify the software. This amounts to less than 0.5% of the total license portfolio and is easily met on an annual basis.
The systems administrator stressed how the removal of all the manual work done previously because of inadequate reporting saved an incredible amount of time. There were cost savings too, because it was easy to identify unused licenses and optimize the license portfolio.
We would like to thank the system administrator for granting us this interview and giving us some insights into how OpenLM plays its part at this specialist engineering company.
Are MH Happy with the Service?
Yes, indeed. Apart from the seamless transition initially, current service is rated as good overall, from response time and problem resolution through to proactive management. Because of OpenLM’s need to keep their software product up-to-date, they are usually the first to know of new challenges that will impact the engineering software community and this knowledge is transferred to the SaaS support team.
The systems administrator stressed how the removal of all the manual work done previously because of inadequate reporting saved an incredible amount of time. There were cost savings too, because it was easy to identify unused licenses and optimize the license portfolio.
We would like to thank the system administrator for granting us this interview and giving us some insights into how OpenLM plays its part at this specialist engineering company.
A Lasting Partnership
After nearly 4 years of using OpenLM’s SaaS service, Morrison Hershfield is happy with the control they have over their licenses and the ability to predict future needs. Outsourcing license management to OpenLM, whose core competence is in understanding license management for engineering software, relieves MH of the operational overheads of ensuring license availability to its 500 engineers worldwide, ensuring productivity while not incurring unnecessary costs. We look forward to maintaining and strengthening our relationship in the future.
